Sunday, January 18, 2015

As the gentle reader is surely aware of by now, Mike Tate, current chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) has finally made his decision not to run again for the chair. If he had any sense of decency, he would have stepped down two months ago, like his counterpart in Ohio did. Some say that Tate's delay was due to wanting to milk his six figure salary for all its worth, he wanted to secure a job first and/or that he wanted to set up his heir apparent for the chair position.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve met with grassroots activists and leaders all across the state to talk about the future of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. I’m overwhelmed by the support and encouragement I am receiving as I talk to leaders from Kenosha to Ashland and from Platteville to Marinette.

It’s because of that support and encouragement I’m excited to announce today that I am running for Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair.

I’m ready for the next challenge and I’m ready to work with you more as we build an even stronger, more diverse party that will help win elections in 2016, 2018, and beyond.

For those of you that may not know me and my story, I wanted to share a little of my background. I got my start in politics in my hometown of Rice Lake, where I would ride my bike to county party meetings before I could even vote. I was soon elected Vice Chair of the Barron County Democratic Party and started on a path of passion and love. I learned in Barron County what I still know to be true now – Democrats need to compete all over Wisconsin, especially in the rural communities, if we want to be successful.

For more than a decade, it has been my honor and privilege to represent Wisconsin on the Democratic National Committee. I’ve worked hard since my election in 2004 to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot and to continue to expand and grow the party. Through that work, I’ve served on the DNC Executive Committee, on the DPW Administrative Committee, and as Chair of the DPW Constitution Committee.

Over the next several months, I look forward to traveling the state and explaining my positive vision of change for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and for our state.

Together, we are going to regroup, refocus, and reenergize so that we can grow the party and be successful in 2016 and beyond. I am running for Chair because I want to work with you to grow our party.

Together, we will strengthen the Democratic Party infrastructure by investing in county parties, building a strong bench of candidates, and growing our constituency caucuses.

Together, we will regain a digital advantage that will differentiate us from Republicans and help to win. We need to provide candidates and county parties with new tools and technologies that will help them be successful in the work that they do.

Together, we will reclaim our progressive values and put forward a positive vision for the future. We need to start talking about what we stand for and not simply what we stand against.

Together, we’ll win elections. We have too much at stake to lose and watch Republicans continue to roll back the progressive programs and ideals that our party’s founders and leaders fought for over many decades.

By investing in county parties and strengthening the party infrastructure, reclaiming our progressive values, and creating a digital advantage, we will win elections and take back the State Senate, State Assembly and the Governor’s Mansion, and elect a Democrat to the United States Senate and Presidency in 2016.

I’d be honored to count you in as a supporter of my campaign. You can click here to sign up as a supporter.

You can also visit my website at www.jasonrae.com to learn more about my vision for the future of the DPW and why I’m running for State Party Chair.

There is a lot of work to be done – and it’s work we will do together. I’m excited to work with all of you to grow and strengthen the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

I’d be honored to have your support on June 5 and 6 at the State Party Convention in Milwaukee.

Democratically yours,

Jason Rae

PS: In addition to visiting our website, be sure to "like" our Facebook page to follow updates from the campaign trail around the state.

A few things strike me about this announcement.

First, it's awfully full of fluff and light on any specifics. His website it not any better.

Secondly, I find it curious that he claims to have been spending weeks talking to grassroots groups and other party leaders when Tate only announced a couple of days ago. Furthermore, I don't recall Rae ever saying that a change needed to be made. That strikes me as sounding like he knew for weeks that Tate wasn't going to run and was using that insider information to leverage an advantage. That type of behavior is frowned upon in public office. I would hope it's frowned upon in the party as well.

Add to that point that I've had grassroots leaders tell me that they haven't heard from Rae at all.

Thirdly, given the current atmosphere in the state and across the country, I'm not sure bragging about being a political insider is the smartest move. It seems rather tone deaf.

I do like the idea of bringing the party's technical aspects up to date. Unfortunately, it will probably just mean that they will be more efficient with their ineffective messaging.

As if this isn't enough, Rae is rather cozy with Boss Abele, who has become toxic for the party.

It would seem that Rae would only maintain the status quo for the party, which is painfully obviously not working.

19 comments:

"His Royal Pawnship" has decided to hand pick his replacement, oh, goody. Maybe some of us will have to join that irrelevant, archaic, front group for big money andgo to the convention to vote this year. ( Being held at the Potawatami Convention Center - adjacent to Milwaukee)

Yes, there is a whisper campaign going on. They're afraid the cash cow's milk might stop flowing their way. There's a lot of money at stake for nation and a couple of big politicos who hold the funds. Personally, I'd like to see some big changes up top. Like having money flow to candidates and keeping field offices open for starters..

Seems like the experiment where the DWP hires an extremely young chair with nothing but campaign experience and a love for insider politics hasn't been working for Wisconsinites. Rae sounds like Tate, Part II. The guy has more insider connections-- of the wrong kind-- than anybody I'd ever want to vote for. That said, Joe Wineke is going to find that the political landscape is not at all what it was in 2009. Unless someone's been active LATELY, they will be spending a ton of time getting up to speed. I wish someone more grassroots would run. That's where the energy is in Wisconsin.

This is the quote that caught my eye..."Together, we will regain a digital advantage that will differentiate us from Republicans and help to win. We need to provide candidates and county parties with new tools and technologies that will help them be successful in the work that they do."

County parties do not need to be told that they need more technology. What they need is to get up and put their pants on and get out into the country and start talking to people! Last year when I was on our local committee I tried to get the party out participating in small town events offering to sponsor a tractor float for every town picnic among other things. The response I got was that that was only for candidates! Local parties are not good at web page publishing and social media - thats true. But unless we start getting back into retail populist politics the current slid will continue. And that is what I would expect to happen under someone who is basically a keyboard warrior trying to feel the bumps on the state's demographic skulls.

I should also comment that the solution being employed here in Manitowoc is to blur the lines between Ds and Rs making it ever more difficult to "differentiate" between Republicans and Democrats. When I complained about this I found myself getting booted off the committee for my troubles. Hell we even had a non member on the committee who was actively supporting a RTW Republican office seeker... I wonder how Mr. Rae's technology differentiate that?

Dont get me wrong, social media works. Its just not enough.And I dont think Rae is talking about that. He is among the statistical geeks who thinks he can data mine a majority out of bare rock if he can just get their address.

Doesn't matter who is chair or god of the democratic party -- without open, fair, free, transparent, and verifiable elections; nothing else matters. Might as well put a turd in that chair (admittedly a better choice than tate).

WALKER STOLE THE RECALL and the November election also has impossible numbers.

So get used to it -- and if walker -- a cousin of george WALKER bush has this type of media cover for election theft, you can bet that just like george WALKER bush, he can steal his way into the white house.

Is Scottie Related to the Walker/Bush Clan? Dangerous War Profiteers That Hate Democracy

Sounds a lot like Burke's announcement letter and I guess that tells us something about the shallow intentions of both candidates in pursuit of their respective offices. If there is a whisper campaign, hopefully it's exposed publicly and fast by true Progressives. (Great La Follette quote on the later post, btw.)

Mid-term election turnout has dropped as much as 43% around here compared to Presidential turnout. That's a fundamental problem which has nothing to do with the party chair. We couldn't find volunteers to save our lives - no one wants to knock doors and really dedicated volunteers were walking 3 & 4 packets to try and keep up. That's a fundamental problem that has nothing to do with the party chair either. Democrats need to get off their asses and stop complaining and start working, hard , all year round and stop thinking some figurehead is going to win elections for them.

DNC delegate. Nation consulting. Youth leadership caucus, etc. It certainly makes sense that he would head up the LBGT Caucus. Rae is everywhere.

Hard worker? Yes. Insider? Definitely. Why do I think that?

Mike Tate sent a letter to Dan Bice saying he would not seek the next term as chair and the day after it was published Rae publicly announced his intent to run, had a "Jason Rae for DPW Chair" up on Facebook, twitter feed and a website multi-page website jasonrae,com.

The website has one long page full of insider endorsements and support, a Tate-speak “fancy, talk but what exactly does that mean” vision statement and a front page link seeking donations.

Think about that for a second.

That was all up and ready to go ONE DAY after Tate announced he would not seek another term as chair.

Sachin Chheda was Milwaukee Chair from 2009 to 2013. Sachin is a partner with Nation.Jason Rae works for Nation. The DPW feeds Nation Consulting.

It that doesn’t seem like insider coordination to you, I don’t know what does.